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Translation of abstract (English)

The dissertation examines Hindu concepts of the deceased, ghosts and ancestors in the period starting with the dying process until one year after death. Its textual basis consists of different texts which are still important for the performance of Hindu death rituals as well as for the imagination of the afterlife. These texts are the Pretakalpa of the Garudapurana, written before the 10th century AD, the Garudapuranasaroddhara of Naunidhirama, originating from the mid-18th century AD and finally the Pretamanjari, a ritual handbook, probably composed before 1707 AD. The aim of this thesis is to analyse and classify the different and contradictory ritual and mythical notions of the forms of existence after death. Further, I am also touching upon the question of how karman and rebirth doctrines are dealt with and how they are related to the contradicting concept of an forefathers’ heaven granting the deceased a permanent existence in the afterlife. In the mythical as well as ritual passages the dynamic social relation between the living and deceased is expressed in form of different states in which the deceased continue to exist. These can be categorized into three main groups: the state as deceased (preta), the state as unpacified and hostile ghost (pishaca) and finally the state as a forefather (pitri). The states or images of the dead (“Totenbilder”) are analysed by understanding ritual and myth as two symbolic systems, functioning differently and independently and therefore expressing the same relations between the living and the dead in different ways. After analysing the first state of a preta I reflect upon the question of how continuity in a ritual tradition can be created, although rituals are changing in course of time. The dissertation concludes with a commented translation and transliteration of the Pretamanjari.